Nuclear structure of bound states of asymmetric dark matter

Moira I. Gresham, Hou Keong Lou, and Kathryn M. Zurek
Phys. Rev. D 96, 096012 – Published 16 November 2017

Abstract

Models of asymmetric dark matter (ADM) with a sufficiently attractive and long-range force give rise to stable bound objects, analogous to nuclei in the Standard Model, called nuggets. We study the properties of these nuggets and compute their profiles and binding energies. Our approach, applicable to both elementary and composite fermionic ADM, utilizes relativistic mean field theory, and allows a more systematic computation of nugget properties, over a wider range of sizes and force mediator masses, compared to previous literature. We identify three separate regimes of nugget property behavior corresponding to (1) nonrelativistic and (2) relativistic constituents in a Coulomb-like limit, and (3) saturation in an anti-Coulomb limit when the nuggets are large compared to the force range. We provide analytical descriptions for nuggets in each regime. Through numerical calculations, we are able to confirm our analytic descriptions and also obtain smooth transitions for the nugget profiles between all three regimes. We also find that over a wide range of parameter space, the binding energy in the saturation limit is an O(1) fraction of the constituent’s mass, significantly larger than expectations in the nonrelativistic case. In a companion paper, we apply our results to the synthesis of ADM nuggets in the early Universe.

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  • Received 17 July 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.96.096012

© 2017 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

  1. Research Areas
Particles & Fields

Authors & Affiliations

Moira I. Gresham1, Hou Keong Lou2,3, and Kathryn M. Zurek2,3

  • 1Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington 99362, USA
  • 2Theoretical Physics Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
  • 3Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA

See Also

Early Universe synthesis of asymmetric dark matter nuggets

Moira I. Gresham, Hou Keong Lou, and Kathryn M. Zurek
Phys. Rev. D 97, 036003 (2018)

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Issue

Vol. 96, Iss. 9 — 1 November 2017

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